Stillen Gen3 Intake, Berk Hi-flow cat, and Stillen cat-back exhaust

Denny McLain

Tried heating the 02 base with a butane torch and two things happened: I chickened out as I don't like to singe anything and the other is, it didn't help. Was very disappointed the muffler shop didn't try and heat it with their gas torches before they took it out as it sure stripped the threads.

Update...... Removed the JIC Y-pipe, took the cats off, installed new crush header/cats gaskets and installed the Stillen Y-pipe. Think a big trick is to tighten the top two bolts first on the cats/exhaust manifold to create more of an upward angle and do the bottom bolt last. I tightened the dog poop out of the top ones and snugged firmly the bottom ones.

Loosely fitted everything, jacked the exhaust up and retightened everything. There is more clearance but the washers will remain as I just don't think it will clear completely w/o them. Drive the car a bit to see if the exhaust sags and make a decision later but there was definite marks where it rubbed in only 18 miles.

Also.....thanks for the heads up on the 1168 code. My OBD II code reader said MAF but it's a general code reader and not Nissan specific.

wstar

The Nissan description is:

P1168 - Closed Loop Control (Bank 2)

(From Nissan OBD-II Trouble Codes )

Forum threads here and there say it's likely an O2 sensor (the header ones that are real AF meters).

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7AT Track Car!
Journal thread / Car setup details

Denny McLain

OK; fool me once, shame on me. I'll call Stillen and if they don't have a cure......shame on them.

More of an update.

After what I consider to be a very significant amount of effort, the exhaust system still makes a "clanging" noise. You hear it in normal driving just hitting soft bumps. Evidently the $20.00 new crush gaskets and the time spent being very careful installing Stillen Y-pipe... the exhaust still ain't working.

Don't let anyone BS you, it's not the real deal if it doesn't fit right. Think an old school term "racers net" (which means you need to make to work) applies. The car is only 4 months old...... a clanging exhaust is ghetto. What? I need to take a hammer and put a dent in it so it doesn't make a noise! No wonder they put them on sale. Congates.......got me. I bit on the sale price.

After taking a morning off; jacking up the car with again on jack stands, you try laying flat on your back in mid July Texas heat readjusting the exhaust and still hear a clanging noise .......tell me your happy about spending on over grand on what should be a slam dunk easy deal!

Didn't call Stillen today, but bet our *** I will tomorrow. What a pain in the butt!

racerxj17

mine went on with little effort, with jackstands and hand tools. im not 100% happy with the sound with the HFC, but no other complaints.

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2009 PW Sport/Touring/Nav M6
Stillen Gen 3 Intake/CBE/Berk HFC/BC BR Coil over/Phillips 6500k/Hotchkis Sways/Stillen oil cooler/B&M SS

Denny McLain

Then maybe it's the headers that are throwing things off. Congrates to you.....wish I had the same luck. Something isn't right.

Kyle@STILLEN

One thing to keep in mind is that the slip joints are designed to crush down on the inner pipe. The benefit to that is that it acts as a secondary lock. When the outer pipe crushes down onto the inner pipe it maintains that position and is very difficult to re-form, hence the reason why some people who had the first product run of exhaust systems had difficulty even when jacking up the exhaust when they tried to re-install the system to correct the "sagging issue." This is also the reason why we recommend supporting the exhaust system with a jack so that when the outer pipe does crush down it is in the desired location.

It could be that the problems are from the original installation with the JIC Y-pipe and our rear section. Perhaps they won't work together? Perhaps they spacing is a bit different? I don't know, there are a lot of possibilities.

Please send me an email with photos of the problems that you are experiencing. I am especially interested in understanding why you needed to stack a bunch of washer to install this. No one else has ever needed to do that so that is something I am very curious about.

If you purchased this system any time within the past couple of months than I assure you, you most definitely have the new production version which no one else has had issues with during the installation process. All of the running production changes that were made have completely eliminated any issues that were found from the first production batch.

Shoot me an email with some photos if you can please. I will take a look at them immediately and we'll see what we can do to get you squeak free and enjoying the exhaust!

Denny McLain

Josh

My play time just ran out as I need to prepare for a business trip to CA. I'm scheduled for dyno tuning Saturday and will take the pictures then. However, this sounds a bit like: "I didn't have sex with your wife, she had sex with me."

The dimensions of the JIC pipe is identical and had zero issues when connected to the stock back half. I sat the stock, JIC and Stillen on the floor on end standing up next to each other prior to installing and all three matched perfectly. Even put a straight edge on top and was surprised how identical they were. As mentioned, it's a very, very high quality design, top grade stainless, the TIG welds are perfect and it has flex joints just like the factory puts into the exhaust.

The exhaust was raised prior to final bolting and all procedures followed to a T. Guess I'm having a hard time with it's the customers fault. Granted it's more difficult doing it on jack stands but it shouldn't be rocket science and bolting up an exhaust is pretty straight forward.

I'll call when I'm at the airport heading your way.